


Both Hands in Gloves

by whereismypie



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Avengers Family, Emotional Hurt, Everyone Has Issues, F/M, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, M/M, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Sequel, Steve is a bit of a dick, civil war!au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:22:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22293256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whereismypie/pseuds/whereismypie
Summary: “I found Bucky.”“What… what do you mean you found Bucky?” Steve asked in disbelieve. He didn’t even know that Tony had been looking for him.Set after "A Very Avengers Christmas".Tony found Bucky in Bucharest and the team is trying to get the Winter Soldier back home.
Relationships: Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 6
Kudos: 25





	1. I don't let go (let go)

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is the sequel to "A Very Avengers Christmas", which is a sequel to "Don't Worry, I've got a Plan". It's not necessary to read them first, but they are cute and happy and what follows won't be. 
> 
> The fic and chapter titles are based on this wonderful song.

“I found Bucky.”

“What… what do you mean you found Bucky?” Steve asked in disbelieve. He didn’t even know that Tony had been looking for him.

After the events of the past year and his take-down of Hydra, and subsequently S.H.I.E.L.D, after he had found out who the Winter Soldier really was, Steve had spend every free minute that he wasn’t with Tony or dealing with the regular Avengers business, looking for his long lost friend.

Not once had Steve asked Tony to help him with his search, he felt like that it was his job, his duty to find Bucky. Sure, they had talked about Bucky, more than once, Steve told him all about what happened on the helicarrier. Told him that Bucky seemed to remember him. Told him how he would do anything to get his friend back.

And now there was this file in his hands. He almost didn’t dare to open it.

“I-I noticed that you were looking for him and… well the other night I couldn’t sleep and I got curious and since Nat made all of S.H.I.E.L.D.s files public and with the help of J.A.R.V.I.S. it wasn’t too hard to find a trace of him.” What Tony didn’t tell him was that it was actually more than just one sleepless night he had spend digging through old files, following cold and false trails, until two weeks ago he finally digged Bucky up in Bucharest.

Two weeks where he didn’t know what to do, how to tell Steve about finding Bucky. It shouldn’t have been so difficult. He should just have been able to come up to Steve and given him the file right away. But he was scared.

Even before the Winter Soldier showed up, Steve was always talking about Bucky. About how he had been his only friend, about how they grew up together, about the brief time they spend together in the army.

So, some part of Tony was scared. Scared that Steve would leave as soon as he had someone better to go to. Scared that if given the choice Steve would choose Bucky over him. It was incredibly selfish, and he knew that, but still couldn’t help himself.

The whole time he had reasoned with himself how ridiculous it was to think that, had even asked Rhodey for advice and frankly was lucky not to get hit over the head by him.

“Are you shitting me Stark? That man is crazy about you! And trust me if he’s gonna leave your ass it’s gonna be because of the snoring and not some deep freeze killer soldier who’s messed up eyeliner makes him look like a racoon.” Rhodey was as lovingly as usual. And as usual his words had managed to calm Tony down. There was a reason they had stayed friends for so long.

Now, standing in front of Steve, looking at the expression on his face, Tony’s anxiety roared back to life. Had he done the right thing by looking for Bucky?

The longer Steve stayed silent, the more Tony began to panic.

“I’m sorry. I-I shouldn’t have done that. He’s your friend. Not mine. I should have just stayed out of it. I just-“ Before he could dive headfirst into a full blown panic ramble, Steve finally got off the bed and pulled Tony into a kiss. His worries melted immediately in Steve’s arms and for the first time in weeks he truly allowed himself to relax.

“This is amazing! I don’t know how to thank you Tony.” Steve breathed against Tony’s now smiling lips.

“Oh, I could think of a way, Captain.” 

The next morning Steve was up early as usual. Tony was still lying in bed on his belly, putting a chainsaw to shame with his snoring. On any other morning Steve would have been out and about by this time, either on one of his morning runs or down in the kitchen, sitting at the counter with Bruce having breakfast. Not this morning though. This morning his head was buried in a thick file labelled “Secret Santa”.

Yesterday, when Tony said that he would give Steve his present later when they were alone, Steve had expected everything from mattress gymnastics to a complicated tech gimmick, but certainly not this. This… this was more than he could ever hoped for.

All the information he needed to get his friend back, rested in the palm of his hands and he couldn’t help but grin like an idiot.

According to the file, Bucky was in Bucharest in a small shitty apartment that reminded Steve so much of the first apartment he and Bucky had shared back in Brooklyn. Before the war. Before the serum. When things were easy.

Did Bucky choose it because he remembered it too? Or was it just a convenient hide-out?

There were pictures of him too. Long hair, the hint of a beard, like he hadn’t had the time to shave properly, an olive-green cap pulled deep over his face, almost completely shading his blue eyes. Tired eyes. Panicked eyes. He looked, by every definition, like a man on the run. Chased. Hunted.

The man on the pictures barely looked like the man he knew. The man he knew would never leave the house without shaving, would never have let his hair grow that long. Steve remembered fondly making fun of Bucky and how vain he was about his hair. He remembered all the bickering when Bucky took too long in the bathroom again, before they left to go out for the night.

But the what had changed the most were his eyes. They used to have a certain sparkle in them, used to be so full of life.

Reading the information Tony had been able to collect, regarding Bucky’s time as the Winter Soldier, as a Hydra-puppet, Steve wasn’t surprised about the look on Bucky’s face. He was sure the information in this folder was just the tip of the iceberg and he couldn’t, didn’t want to, imagine the things they must have done to him.

For now, the important thing was to get him back, keep him safe and let him know that he was no longer alone.

Steve always had an emergency bag ready, so he was good to go on a moment’s notice. Yet for some reason something held him back from just taking his bag and flying to Romania. It felt wrong to leave without telling the others, or at least telling Tony.

So, he was sitting here instead, file in hand, bag at his feet, waiting. He didn’t want to wake Tony because Heavens knew that was a bad idea. The man slept little enough as it was.

It took another hour before Tony started to stir and it wasn’t a moment too soon. Steve had gotten more restless by the minute, pacing up and down in the living room of Tony’s penthouse apartment and was about to scribble a note explaining where he was going when a barely audible voice carried over from the bedroom.

“’S the time?”

“It is 7.34am, sir.” J.A.R.V.I.S. answered.

“Fuck that.”

Steve could hear Tony huffing and the rustling of the sheets. This was his chance. Steve made his way to the bedroom, quick long strides. He already lost enough time.

“Tony?” Steve stood in the doorframe, file in one hand, bag in the other. Tony had his back turned towards the door, one leg poking out from under the blanket, hair sticking up in all directions. He looked adorable and Steve had to fight the impulse of just climbing back into bed with him.

“Mmh?” Steve knew that sound. It meant “unless the world is ending, you have coffee, or some other hot stuff to give to me you better walk away quickly”. It made Steve smile every time.

“Darlin’ I just wanted to let you know I’ll be gone for a few days.”

That did the trick. Tony turned around to face him, his barely open eye widened, darting between the bag and the file up to Steve’s face. Gone was his sleepy morning face, replaced by a deep frown, the one he only had when something was wrong.

“What?” Steve asked, suddenly defensive.

Tony sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “Steve, don’t you think that’s a bit, I don’t know rushed?”

“Rushed?! Tony he’s been on the run for almost a year! I need to find him. Now!”

“Hey, I’m all with you, why do you think I gave you this? But he was brainwashed for decades and might still not be himself.”

Steve clenched his jaw and tightened the grip on his bag. “He remembered me.”

“Honey, he hesitated for a second-“

“He remembered!” Steve’s voice was raised now, his hands shaking in anger. Why was Tony like this now? Didn’t he want him to have Bucky back? What was the point in giving him this file, if he just sat at home, comfortable, ignoring that his friend needed help?

Tony sighed, shaking his head. “Okay, let’s say he does remember you, say he remembers who he was or is. Let’s pretend he will come with you willingly and without putting up a fight. Bucky is still a wanted man. Do you think you can just march into the country with him, without the government having something to say about that?”

“Fuck the government! And since when did you care what they think?”

“Since it could get you arrested for helping a murderer.”

“He is not-“

“Yes I know, he was brainwashed and forced to do it, but that doesn’t change the governments opinion of him.”

On top of being angry, Steve was getting immensely frustrated right now. “What do you want to do then?” He snapped.

Tony’s frown deepened, but his voice remained calm. “All I’m saying is that we need a plan. Not just rush into it headfirst.”

It was like they changed roles. Tony was the voice of reason, suggesting forming a plan of action first, and Steve had turned into the impulsive, irresponsible hothead.

Of course, he knew that Tony was right, but every second spend not helping Bucky seemed like wasted time to him.

“Fine! Fine, we’ll make a plan first.” He sounded less than happy about it, avoiding eye contact with Tony.

“Hey J, tell the team to meet me and Captain Rogers in the briefing room in ten minutes.”

Tony had called him Captain Rogers. He only did that in two situations, when he was pissed off or when he was teasing Steve. This was definitely not the latter.

Precisely ten minutes later the team had assembled in the briefing room. Clint was still in his pyjamas, his head resting on the table. The others only looked scarcely more awake than the archer, but at least they were dressed.

Tony and Steve were the last to join, the tension between them virtually graspable.

Tony took a seat in the back, arms crossed, jaw set. Nat sat up a little straighter, now certain that something was very wrong and not just there-is-a-new-baddie-in-town-wrong. She nudged Clint and before he could start to complain, Natasha raised her brow, nodding her head towards Tony.

Clint blinked a few times and huffed. “What’s up, trouble in paradise?” It was hard to tell who kicked him first under the table, Nat or Bruce. “OW!”

Steve chose to ignore them and instead got straight to the point. He told them all about the file and his plans to go and get Bucky home.

For a moment everyone was silent, looking from Steve to Tony.

“Am I right to assume, that you don’t quite see eye to eye with that?” Bruce asked.

Steve didn’t reply, just stared at Tony, who shook his head.

“All I was saying was that we need a plan.”

Natasha narrowed her eyes slightly, fixing her gaze on Steve, but he was avoiding everyone’s eyes. “As much as I hate to agree with Stark,”

“Thanks, Romanoff.”

“I think he’s right. We shouldn’t rush into this. We need to be careful. After all he is a hitman with a price on his head.”

“So were you.” Steve shot back.

Natasha flinched ever so slightly at the harsh comeback, earning Steve a death glare from Clint. He knew that Steve knew how sensitive a topic that was for Nat and how much she tried to leave her past in the past. Bringing it up like this in front of everyone was far from okay.

Clint was about to retort, but Natasha’s shaking hand taking hold of his under the table stopped him. This was her fight, not his. But that didn’t mean that he wasn’t pissed.

“This Soldier of Winter, he is your friend?” Thor asked, breaking the awkward silence.

Steve nodded, but didn’t say anything.

“Then I say we help him.”

“Of course, we’re going to help him Thor, but we need a plan! What if he is still hostile? What if he doesn’t want to come with us? Where are we going to hide him?” Tony asked.

“I don’t understand how this is any of your concern. There is no _we_. He is _my_ friend and _I_ need to help him!” Steve seemed to be determined to antagonise everyone today.

Tony lowered his eyes, staring at his hands, trying his best to hide how much that hurt him. All the sleepless nights trying to find Bucky, the days of doubt and uncertainty about telling Steve and now his nightmare had come true.

“I think you need to dial it down Steve. We’re on your side and we’re just trying to help.” Bruce spoke up. Tony was one of the closest friends he ever had and witnessing him being spoken to like that made him… angry.

“Listen, we are in this together if you like it or not. We are a family and if you want to get Bucky back then we will find a way to do that. Together!” Natasha’s tone allowed no room for backtalk. “Now, first we need somewhere to hide him. Ideas?”

“How about the new compound? The government has no idea where it is, it has more than enough room and it’s about as secure as it can get.” Clint suggested.

Bruce nodded in agreement. “The only ones outside of this room who know about it are Vision and Wanda and they are there right now.”

“Fine.”

“Good. Now, who is going to Romania?”

“I’m going alone.”

“No, you’re not. We are a team and we do this as one.”

Everyone watched Natasha and Steve’s exchange, eyes darting between them like in a tennis match. Neither of them was willing to back down, and of the first time Tony was happy about her stubbornness.

“Then I’ll take Sam with me.”

“Fine. You, Sam and me.” Nat was having none of his nonsense. “I can speak the language and as you pointed out so rightly, I know what it is like to be a hunted assassin.”

Steve knew he had lost the fight, that there was no way he was going to Romania without her. He also knew that he had gone too far with her and most of all with Tony, but they didn’t know. Didn’t know about his agony, about how guilty he felt about Bucky. He should have kept him safe, just like Bucky had when Steve was young.

If it weren’t for him, Bucky would never have fallen off the train, wouldn’t have ended up as a Hydra experiment.

Bucky was his responsibility.

Looking around the table he realized that even if they didn’t know how he felt and even though he had been a dick, they were with him.

After all, that’s what family is.

Steve nodded slowly. “Yes. Okay. We leave in an hour.”


	2. I don't give in (give in)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve, Sam and Natasha go to Bucharest to get Bucky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry. I really am. Life has been crazy for the last few months. I finished my bachelors, my little brother married, I moved country, started my masters, until uni got suspended because of COVID-19 and now I'm stuck in Slovakia, because they just closed all borders, which sucks because my brother is leaving for Mail in two weeks (army) and I can't go to Germany to say goodbye to him.  
> So, to deal with my emotions, and boredom, I finally finished chapter 2. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Clint had tried to convince them that he should come with, arguing that he could fly the jet and that it would be good to have another pair of helping hands. Of course, Natasha knew that this was about how Steve had spoken to her this morning. The jab about her past didn’t sit well with him at all. She wasn’t that thrilled about it either, making a mental note to talk to Steve about that when he had calmed down a little, but Clint… It was him who had made the call to bring Nat in instead of following his orders. It was him who convinced her to come with him, to choose to be better. It was him who stood up for her, when they barely even knew each other. So, to him an attack on her felt like an attack to him. It was sweet really. And she loved him for that, even though she hadn’t even said that to him yet.

Eventually she had convinced him to stay in New York and keep an eye on Stark, because he too looked less than happy about what was going on. Nat knew that he had been trying to find Bucky, Tony wasn’t half as good at hiding things as he thought he was. At least not good enough to hide stuff from her. She had wondered how long it would take Tony to find him and then she had wondered how long it would take him to tell Steve.

Now Natasha finally understood why Tony had hesitated that long. She had expected Steve to be over the moon about finding Bucky and not to fly off the handle like that.

As soon as they had Bucky safe in the compound, she would make sure Steve apologized to Tony or so help her god. Or whoever.

Because another thing she would never admit was that she actually liked Tony. Sure, he used to be vain and self-absorbed, used to drive everyone crazy with his snide remarks and cocky attitude, but he had become more to her, to all of them. Because as it turns out Tony Stark not only has a heart, but a great one at that. After the battle of New York, he not only remodelled the Stark Tower for all of them to live in, he also made sure they felt at home here. It was the small things, like that way he designed their rooms, tailored specifically to their personality. Or how he constantly improved their gear, how he made sure everyone’s comfort food was always ready and stocked. He played prank wars with Clint, tried his best to teach Thor about this world, made Bruce feel safe and calm, he let her steal his t-shirt and even helped her loot the other’s closets. Tony Stark was a good man and she’d be damned if someone hurt him.

Even if it was Steve.

Maybe especially if it was Steve.

But all of that had to wait until later. First, they had to get Bucky.

Sam arrived at the tower almost an hour later, ready for take-off.

The good-byes were all kind of awkward. Steve felt a little calmer now that they were finally taking action, but he and Tony still hadn’t spoken to each other by the time Sam showed up. While Nat and Clint were hugging, him wishing her good luck and giving it one last try to convince her to let him come with them, Tony stood in the back of the room with Thor and Bruce, arms behind his back. Somehow the distance felt too great to cover.

So, instead of going over to Tony, instead of apologizing or at least talking to him before they left, Steve barked at Natasha: “Romanoff, time to go,” and boarded the quinjet without looking back. He didn’t see Tony’s hurt expression, didn’t see Bruce putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder, didn’t see Tony storming down to his workshop. What he saw was the mission ahead of him, getting Bucky back home.

Steve caught Sam up on all the details on the flight to Bucharest, while Natasha was flying the jet. Since the only time he had met Bucky he was the Winter Soldier and he tried to kill them, Sam definitely had his doubts about the whole operation.

“I don’t know man, he didn’t strike me as the kind that comes quietly.”

Steve shook his head. “You don’t know him like I do.”

“Hey, if you say we get him, we get him.” Sam said before Steve even had the chance to get hot headed again.

The rest of the flight was spent in silence, Natasha was too upset to talk to Steve and even if she wanted to, the man had his head buried in the file Tony had given him, not looking up once. Sam sat next to her, clearly picking up on the weird vibe between them, but the man was too smart to say something about it.

Just before landing Steve briefed them. “I will go in and talk to him, Sam you’re waiting on the roof opposite the building in case something goes wrong, keep your wings ready. Natasha, you stay in the jet and have it ready to go. Understood?”

Both Sam and Natasha nodded, even though she had a lot of problems with his plan, staring with the fact that he was going in there alone. Sure, Captain America could more than take care of himself against your everyday villain, but the Winter Soldier, or Bucky, was everything but normal. She had the scar to prove it. She saw what he had done to Steve on the helicarrier one year ago. But she knew if she said something now, it would only end in an argument again and the last thing Steve needed before heading into a potentially dangerous situation was to be agitated. So, she grid her teeth and nodded.

Steve half expected Natasha to argue with him and was actually surprised when she didn’t. Maybe on an ordinary day her lack of protest would have made him pause and rethink, but not today. The time for overthinking had past and it was time to finally act.

They had landed on the roof of the building Bucky, according to the file, lived in. He had decided to enter in his civilian cloths and not as Captain America, just bringing his shield with him. No weapons. He was confident that Bucky would recognise him, just like before, and that he wouldn’t even need Sam as backup.

Steve grabbed his shield and exited the jet with Sam, who after giving Steve a reassuring nod, took off to keep watch on the opposite roof.

Guided more by instinct than anything else Steve found Bucky’s apartment on the twentieth floor. By the sounds of it, or the lack thereof, the apartment was empty.

Suddenly nervous, Steve took a deep breath and took out the lockpicking tools Natasha had given him for his last birthday. Even with his trembling fingers, the lock didn’t pose a problem to Steve. Taking in another deep breath, he pushed the door open and for the first time in 70 years he entered Bucky’s home again.

The windows were boarded up, barely letting any sun in, giving the whole place a dark and gloomy look. To his left lay a mattress on the floor, a sleeping bag piled on top of it. The sofa was old and badly worn, just like the rest of the furniture.

Everything about this place screamed “temporary hide-out” to Steve and he would be surprised not to find a ready packed bag somewhere.

From a purely tactical standpoint this was a good place to stay. Top-floor so everyone coming from downstairs could be anticipated easily; the roof was close enough to the next house so that Bucky, or Steve, would be able to jump that gap, but not too close for a non-enhanced human to do so; there was a small balcony in the back, from which one could escape as well, if necessary. It was a good apartment for someone on the run. And yet Steve could clearly tell that this place, while practical and with only the essential furniture, is where Bucky tried to make a home for himself.

There were hints of his friend’s residency all over the place.

Steve entered the small apartment, making his way to the kitchen area. He let his hand run over one of the many floral tea towels and a long-forgotten memory pushed itself to the surface.

_Brooklyn. Pre-war, pre-serum, pre-complication. Him sitting at a very worn kitchen table, Bucky leaning against the counter. His sister Rebecca looking around their place with the same disapproving look she wore most of the time when it came to Bucky. Disapproving but loving._

_“Look at this place. If ma could see this, she would give you a good talkin’ to.”_

_The slight smirk Bucky always had on his face grew into a proper grin._

_“Well, that’s what I have you for, Becca.”_

_“I told you not to call me that!” She snapped and threw one of the tea towels she brought at him._

_Bucky caught it with one hand and his grin faltered. “Flowers? Really?”_

_There was no denying that Bucky and Rebecca were siblings, they wore the same smug expression on their faces when they knew they were getting their way._

_“It makes it a real home. Doesn’t it, Steve?”_

_Steve knew better than to get between the two of them, so he just shrugged his bony shoulders._

_Rebecca had always been nice to Steve, always helped Bucky to take care of him when he was sick, which happened quite a lot. In a way she was his sister as well._

_“And would you look at all the mess! Candy everywhere and the dishes!”_

_Bucky let out a puff of air. “It makes more sense to wash a lot of dishes at once instead of a bit of dishes all the time.”_

_“No, it does not.” Steve and Rebecca said at the same time. Bucky’s eyes snapped to his best friend and the overdramatic expression of betrayal on his face made Steve giggle._

_Rebecca moved to stand behind Steve and put one hand on his back, while the other one produced a tin box out of the basket, she had brought with her. She placed the tin box in front of him and even without opening it, Steve knew it held her famous chocolate cookies inside._

_“James Buchanan Branes, you will keep this place in order. You will do the dishes as soon as there are dishes to be done and you will make sure that there is no food lying around. Is that understood?”_

_Bucky’s eyes darted from his sister to the tin of cookies and back. He had once said to Steve, that a good soldier must be willing to make sacrifices. His life for the freedom of others. Doing the dishes for Rebecca’s cookies. “Fine.”_

Steve couldn’t help but smile, as he picked up one of the half-empty packs of cookies. It seemed like Bucky being a sweet tooth hadn’t changed at all and neither had his unwillingness to do the dishes, or the state of constant chaos he left behind everywhere.

The floor was littered with empty food containers, dirty clothes and most of all newspapers. Steve bend down to pick one up at random. It looked like it was written in Russian, but he didn’t need to be able to read it to know what it was about. Half of the front page was taken up by a slightly blurry picture of Bucky.

Just as he was about to put the paper down on the kitchen counter, Steve heard a soft noise coming from the front door behind him. Any normal human wouldn’t have been able to pick up on it, but thanks to the serum Steve didn’t only know that there was someone else in the room with him, but also who it was.

“If Becca could see this place, she would give you a good talkin’ to.”

The newspaper still in hand, Steve turned around slowly and looked at the wrong end of a gun.

“Is that why you’re here?” His opposite asked, his voice level, not a hint of emotion in it.

“You know why I’m here, Bucky.”

Bucky’s eyes were fixed on Steve and narrowed ever so slightly upon hearing his name.

“It’s time to come home.”

Before Bucky could reply, another voice made itself known over Steve’s in-ear.

“Cap, we got company. Twenty, heavy armed, just entered the building. 30 seconds.”

By the look on Bucky’s face, he had also picked up on Sam’s message as well. He lowered his weapon and strode straight past Steve, who picked up his shield. Not to fight his friend, but to protect him from what was about to come. He wanted to avoid a fight at all costs, but if he was forced to, Steve would do anything to protect Bucky.

“This doesn’t have to end in a fight.”

Bucky opened the balcony door and stopped for just a moment. “It always ends in a fight.”

“10 seconds, Cap.”

Steve grabbed Bucky’s upper arm, forcing him to turn around. “I can protect you.”

Before Bucky had even the chance to reply, the whole apartment descended into chaos. The windows shattered from armed policemen swinging in, the door started wavering as the men on the other side tried to ram it open, smoke grenades were flying through the air.

Steve immediately sprang into action, placing his shield over one of the grenades, before it could detonate and cloud the room in thick smoke. Meanwhile Bucky knocked two of the policemen that came through the windows unconscious, making his way to the third on the balcony. Only thanks to Steve’s quick reflexes, did the man not fall over the railing to his death.

“Bucky, you’re gonna kill someone.”

The other man grabbed Steve by the shoulder and threw him to the ground, behind the kitchen counter, just as a hail of bullets rained down where they just stood.

“I don’t do that anymore.”

Bucky’s metal hand clenched into a fist and came down hard next to Steve’s face. He pulled a rucksack out from the shattered floorboards and threw it behind him, off the balcony onto a roof below.

Both of them got back up from the floor, but before Bucky could jump out after his rucksack, another policeman stormed in, firearm blazing. To protect Bucky from the hail of bullets, Steve placed his shield in front of his friend, bullets bouncing off it. As soon as the clip was empty, Bucky neutralised the man, throwing his gun across the room.

The knocking from the assault ram on the door seized and instead three shots could be heard from outside, no doubt dislodging the hinges of the door. Abandoning his plan to jump out over the balcony, Bucky ran full speed against the door, taking three men on the other side down. Disarming the other two, he stated sprinting down the stairs, no doubt he had more than one alternative escape route planned for just such an occasion.

Steve was a mere second behind Bucky, making sure that none of the men left behind were getting back up to go after him.

Bucky went down faster and faster, bringing down everyone who stood in his way. He looked back to check for pursuers and met Steve’s gaze. There was this desperation again, that Steve had noticed on the bridge of the helicarrier a year before. The expression of a hunted animal, forced to fight, forced to fear every second of existence. All Steve wanted to do was help Bucky, keep him safe and protect him just like he had done when Steve was still a weak little kid from Brooklyn. 

But at the moment it seemed like Bucky was running from the police just as much as he was running from Steve.

Not wasting any time, Steve practically flew down the stairs and just caught a glimpse of Bucky disappearing into an apartment three floors below. Judging by the absence of screams, Steve assumed that the tenants were either not home, or this was a planed escape route and Bucky had rented that place as well as the one they just came from. Following suit, Steve saw Bucky jumping out over the balcony, landing on the opposite roof. There he picked up his rucksack and ran full speed away from the building behind him.

Movement behind him, forced Steve to take his eyes off Bucky. He made quick work of the policemen, but by the time he was done with them, he had lost sight of Bucky.

“Sam, do you have eyes on Bucky?” Steve asked, panting slightly.

“Got him, Cap.”

“Quinjet is ready for you boys.” Natasha announced.

Inhaling deeply, Steve took a run-up to gain enough speed to jump the gap between this building and the roof opposite it. He landed hard on his shoulder, the impact punching the air out of his lungs. But Steve didn’t stop, following the shadow of Sam’s wings he sprinted to where he assumed Bucky was.

Just as he turned to corner, he saw how Sam came up behind Bucky and with both feet kicked him in the back to bring him down. Before Bucky could get up again, Sam struck out with one of his wings, driving it down on the side of Bucky’s head. 

Steve watched as his best friend sank to the ground unconscious and a burning fury took over his body. He was so consumed by his anger, that he didn’t even notice the jet landing just a few strides away from them. Before Steve could do anything stupid, he might have regretted later, Natasha’s voice rang out behind him.

“Get in. Now!”

Sam was about to pick up Bucky’s unconscious body, but Steve knocked him aside and shot him a glance that made unmistakably clear, that no one but him was to touch Bucky. Without a word, Steve picked up his friend and carried him into the jet.

Natasha seemed even more tense and alert than usual, and Sam finally understood what the weird mood back at the tower in New York was all about.

Somehow Steve had changed. And possibly not for the better.


End file.
